The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Friday, June 14, 2013

Mideast Red Star Rising

by Joseph Klein

According
to reports, last weekend’s California summit between President Obama
and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, focused on subjects
such as North Korea, cyber security and areas of potential cooperation
between the two world powers. President Obama said that “we’re more
likely to achieve our objectives of prosperity and security of our
people if we are working together cooperatively, rather than engaged in
conflict.” However, as President Obama tries to pivot away from his
disastrous Middle East-North African policies to focus more on Asia, and
China in particular, he finds himself faced with China’s increasing
presence in the chaotic region he is leaving behind. Conflicts
developing between China and the United States over Middle East
interests on diplomatic, economic and even military levels are
inevitable, made more imminent by Obama’s reckless policies and shift in
priorities.

On President Obama’s watch, the rising sectarian violence in the
Middle East-North African region, the Islamist take-over in Egypt, and
Islamist Iran getting ever closer to achieving its ambition of a nuclear
arms arsenal capability have fueled the kind of instability in an
energy rich portion of the world that China abhors. China believes it
has no choice but to step into the morass left by Obama to protect its
own national interests. With the United States’ abdication of leadership
under Obama, China also sees an historic opportunity to extend the
sphere of influence it has already established on the African continent.
And that means currying favor with the Arab states and Iran, at the
United States’ expense.

Vali Nasr, a foreign policy expert and former special adviser to
Richard Holbrooke, the envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2009 to
2010, explained in an interview with PBS News Hour last month that “the
Middle East is a rising strategic interest” for China. Nasr, who is
currently dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced
International Studies, noted that China refers to the wide area
encompassing Pakistan to Iran to Saudi Arabia and Turkey as “West Asia.”
China looks at this area as a vast source of supply for its energy
needs and as a potential market for its investments and products. By
2020, it is estimated that 80% of China’s oil needs will be supplied
from the Middle East.

Thus, “just as we are pivoting East, the Chinese are pivoting West,”
Vali Nasr noted. China craves stability and influence in the region, and
will bet on the rulers it perceives as the most likely to tamp down
unpredictable, potentially dangerous outcomes.

Reflecting China’s increased efforts to become more directly involved
in matters outside of its own Pacific backyard, it hosted Palestinian
and Israeli leaders earlier this spring and put forward its version of a
peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that tracked
closely with the Arab peace plan.

Chinese special envoy to the Middle East Wu Sike told the publication Xinhua
in an interview on June 3rd, during his visit to Egypt as part of his
Mideast tour, that “China is willing to cooperate with Arab states to
push the Middle East peace process.” The Arab states highly value
China’s position on the Palestinian cause and appreciate China’s peace
proposal, Wu said, which “represents an important diplomatic action of
the new Chinese leadership.”

After meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi, Wu told Xinhua: “Arabi said that China backs justice and provides strong support for the number one issue in the Arab world.”

Wu downplayed any differences regarding the Syrian conflict, despite
the fact that the Arab League supports the Syrian opposition and China
continues to support, in a low-key manner, the Assad regime. Referring
to a second international conference on Syria expected to be held in
Geneva this summer, sponsored by the United States and Russia, Wu tried
to position China as a relatively neutral party most interested in
securing a peaceful resolution: “China sees that Geneva II conference is
necessary and that Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and all concerned
Syrian parties should take part in the conference. China’s position is
clear: it requires the international community to create momentum for a
political solution to the crisis.”

China is complementing its more assertive diplomatic presence in the
Middle East with increased economic investments, particularly in Saudi
Arabia and the Gulf states. In 2012 alone, according to Heritage
Foundation statistics, China invested $4.9 billion in the United Arab
Emirates’ real-estate sector and another $3.3 billion in its energy
sector. Trade between the two countries has grown 35 percent annually
over a 10-year period. Dubai is also an important entryway for China
into Africa, where it has numerous investments.

China invested $12.9 billion in Saudi Arabia in 2012, including the
energy and metals sectors. By comparison, according to the Office of the
United States Trade Representative, U.S. foreign direct investment in
Saudi Arabia was $8.0 billion in 2010 (latest data available), a 0.2%
decrease from 2009.

China is also making aggressive moves to enter the Qatar and Egyptian
markets, as the Obama administration seeks to lower its profile in the
region. And while the United States has its defense pact with Yemen,
China has become Yemen’s biggest trading partner. At the same time,
playing all ends against the middle, China is also Iran’s biggest
trading partner.

Speaking of Iran, China and Iran have conducted joint naval
exercises. For example, the Iranian Navy’s 24th fleet of warships,
comprising the Sabalan destroyer and Kharg helicopter carrier, docked in
China’s Zhangjiagang port in early March of this year and conducted
training exercises. The Kharg helicopter carrier is the largest of its
kind in “West Asia.” It operates as a backup aircraft transport for the
Iranian Navy’s destroyers in international waters.

The Iranian commander said that “presence in the Pacific Ocean is a
prelude to [Iran’s] presence in the Atlantic Ocean,” adding, according
to PressTV, that a constant and extensive presence of Iran in
international waters will be on top of the Navy’s agenda.

Moreover, China has continued its arms transfers to Iran despite
United Nations sanctions. According to a report prepared in October 2012
for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, multiple
sources have indicated that “China inaugurated a missile plant in Iran
in early 2010, even as the United States and its allies were pressing
Beijing to support a new round of tough economic sanctions.”

Jane’s Defence Weekly reported in the same time frame that
there has also been cooperation between the Iranian and Chinese
aerospace industries and there have been cooperative tactical missile
programs underway between China and Iran. “China’s design bureaus have
displayed several ‘export only’ weapons (such as the C-705 lightweight
cruise missile) that would seem set to follow the established route into
Iran,” Jane’s Defence Weekly stated. “With such a solid
relationship established between the two countries it is not difficult
to see why China has been reluctant to commit to the Western push for
sanctions against Iran.”

In February 2012, according to the report for the US-China Economic
and Security Review Commission mentioned above, Iran began “production
of the Zafar naval cruise missile, a short-range, antiship, radar-guided
missile apparently based on Chinese C-701AR missile.”

With regard to Chinese oil imports from Iran, Beijing and Tehran
signed a deal in 2011 that gives China exclusive rights to several
Iranian oil and natural gas fields through 2024.

Just a year ago, in response to U.S. sanctions aimed at Iran’s oil
exports, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson insisted that “China’s
importing of Iranian oil is based on its own economic development needs.
This is fully reasonable and legitimate.”

From April of last year to April of this year, China has actually
increased its oil imports from Iran, although they are less than they
were in 2011.

Yet, against this background of continued military and economic
cooperation between China and Iran, the State Department last week
decided to reward China. The State Department exempted China from
financial sanctions targeting Iranian oil sales because it had
supposedly reduced its purchases of Iranian crude oil.

In commenting on what he hoped would result from his two days of
meetings with President Obama, China’s President Xi Jinping said he was
looking for the establishment of a “new model of major country
relationship” with the United States. President Obama’s disastrous
policies in the Middle East and North Africa and his pivot away from the
region give China the chance to construct its own model there to
replace the United States’ strategic leadership.